Katherine Roberts

Yes, I thought the sun had gone to my author’s head, too… but it seems she’s just being nice for the summer holidays. She’s making her Seven Fabulous Wonders series re-available as e-books and would like you, loyal unicorn fans and friends, to have the chance to buy them at summer glitter prices. So here’s how it works. On the 1 st of each month, from now until January 2012, one of these titles will be published as an e-book for Kindle at the very special price of 86p in the UK (99 cents in the US). And as a special Xmas gift you'll get the final two books together at the offer price until the end of January. That’s quite a bit less than you’d pay for a birthday card, and you’ll be getting your hands on a professionally edited book that took several years to research and write. Of course my author will be on starvation rations while her books are selling at this price. So for each title this special offer will run for one month only , after which the p...

Being a unicorn, I naturally enjoy days out with my author to places where you can find creatures with four hooves. Unicorns are a bit thin on the ground in your world, but last week we discovered these sweet ponies at our local mare and foal sanctuary . Anybody brought up on the Follyfoot books  like Katherine was will know exactly what a mare and foal sanctuary is. It’s a place where horses and ponies with problems, who would normally be sold for meat or put down, get a second chance at life. Either they are rehabilitated and eventually rehomed, or they are given kindness and care in their old (and not so old) age. Being close to Dartmoor, this particular sanctuary gets a lot of wild ponies from the moor - orphaned foals whose mothers have been hit by cars, mares in distress, etc. They also take in horses. This is Baboushka, a lovely TB-cross mare only 6 years old who has a problem with her hind legs that mean she cannot be ridden or carry a foal, since her legs wo...

It’s festival season! There used to be just the big ones like Edinburgh, Cheltenham, Hay-on-Wye. Famous authors were invited to get up on stage and talk to their fans, after which they might sell a few books and sign them. In those days, Katherine went to Edinburgh – where she read out the curse in the Great Pyramid Robbery and broke the microphone. She has not been invited back. Katherine went to Cheltenham – where she was interviewed jointly with Diana Wynne-Jones , whose signing queue stretched out of the door. Diana Wynne-Jones became ill shortly afterwards and died earlier this year. She (Katherine) hasn’t been invited back. Katherine went to Hay-On-Wye, where they scheduled her event at the same time as the England vs Argentina semi-final. It was raining. Most people stayed at home to watch the football. She hasn’t been invited back. But now there are festivals everywhere you look. A unicorn can barely trot through an enchanted wood without tripping over one. Peo...

My author must be in a summer holiday mood... would you believe she’s crept off again to post on another blog! Today she discusses horses in history and myth over at the brand new History Girls , where you can find out why one of her books never got published… ( Muse: no unicorns in it, maybe ?) Twenty-six writers of historical fiction for all ages will produce a daily blog post, and there will be competitions to win copies of their books. So trot on over there and register yourself as a follower for a chance to get your hands on a free book or two! Who else is in the History Girls? You'll find all their names over on the blog, and here is a picture of some of them... Have you met any of these authors? (Clue: look at the books they are holding!) One author is taking the picture, of course... Caroline Lawrence, so she's not in it. Nor is Katherine, because she wasn't there (but you already know what she looks like, and unicorns are much prettier, anyway!) The His...

The Muse would like to thank everyone who provided feedback on the cover dilemma for my author’s short story collection. Two strong favourites emerged, with the comment that they gave very different impressions of the contents: Romantic types were attracted to the heart, obviously, with the more romantic title “Rubies”. Others went for the pale sphinx, with the comment that the title was a bit morbid, though horror lovers liked the dark sphinx, and bring on the death... In the end, since these stories are fantasy rather than all-out horror or full-on romance, I decided on the pale sphinx with the title “Death Singer”. I think it suggests the weird and strange, which fits these stories better than the more romantic heart cover. The full collection is now available as an e-book for £1-71, and contains seven tales demonstrating the wide range of the fantasy genre, including one about vampires written long before the current craze started by “Twilight”… honest! Each story carries ...